PECORA 



309 



antler being then said to be " palmated." In young animals the 

 antlers are always small and simple, and in those species in which 

 they are variously branched or palmated, this condition is only 

 gradually ac- 

 quired in several 

 successive annual 

 growths. An 

 interesting paral- 

 lel has been ob- 

 served here, as 

 in so many other 

 cases, between 

 the development 

 of the race and 

 that of the in- 

 dividual. Thus 

 the earliest 

 known forms of 

 Deer, those of 

 the Lower Mio- 

 cene, generally 

 have no antlers, 

 as in the young 

 of the existing 

 species. The 

 Deer of the 

 Middle Miocene 

 have simple ant- 

 lers, with not , 

 more than two 

 branches, as in 

 existing Deer of 

 the second year ; 



but it is not until the Pliocene and Pleistocene times that Deer 

 occur with antlers developed with that luxuriance of growth and 

 beauty of form characteristic of some of the existing species in a 

 perfectly adult state. Among recent Cervidce, antlers are wanting 

 in the genera Moschus and Hydropotes ; they are present in both sexes 

 in Tarandus (the Reindeer), and in the male sex only in all others. 



In those forms with the most complex antlers (Figs. 119, 120) 

 the tine immediately over the forehead is termed the brow tine, the 

 next one the bez tine, and the third one the tres tine ; the mass of 

 points at the summit of the antler being termed either the royal 

 and surroyal tines, or collectively the crwon. The nodulated bony 

 ring at the base of the antler, just above the point at which it 

 separates from the pedicle when it is shed, is termed the burr. 



FIG. 120. Head of Deer (Cervus schomburgki), showing antlers. 

 From Sclater, Proc. ZooL Soc. 1877, p. 682. 



